Island



(No Model.) J. S.'PA'LME PLATING STOCK FOR R. JEWELRY.

Patented Apr. 23, 1889..

fltto vwm vb N. PETERS, Pholo-Ulhugrgpher. Washington, 0.1:.

UNITED STAT S PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN s. PALMER, OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND.

PLATl NG STOCK FOR JEWELRY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 401,900, dated April 23, 1889.

Application filed December 26, 1888. Serial No. 294,629. (No model.)

To ctZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN S. PALMER, of Providence, in the county of Providence and State of Rhode Island, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Plating Stock for Jewelry; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, which will en able others skilled in the art to which it appertains of such manufacture before the shell or thimble is made; and it has for its objects a very great economy in the saving of both the precious and the baser metals, and also the saving of much after labor due to the endeavor to recover these metals from the waste bits or chips ofthe plated sheet which are left after cutting out the plated disks or blanks therefrom prior to shaping them into shells. By my present improvement there are no remaining bits or chips of plated stock due to cutting outthe disks.

Heretofore a plate or bar of the gold or precious metal was first soldered to a thicker plate or bar of the baser metal, and then from such composite plated stock the circular pieces or disks to be converted into thimbles or shells were cut out, thus necessarily leaving all the remaining portion of the plated sheet not only unavailable for making jewelry, but also requiring, in order not to lose or waste the precious metal contained in it, that this portion be refined or separated to disconnect the precious from the base metal, and at considerable expense, whereas if the metals are clean separate clips the only expense is in remelting. This cutaway refuse amounts to about one-third of the whole plate, and the time and labor and cost required to recover this valuable material in it are manifestly very considerable. By my present invention I avoid nearly all such labor and expense, as there is no need of rescuing or sepa rating or recovering the precious metal from plated stock from which the disks are cut, inasmuch as by my present invention the disks are cut from a separate sheet of precious metal and also from another separate sheet of the baser metal before these metals have been in any wise soldered or united together.

In the drawings, Figure 1 represents a sheet of precious metal; Fig. 2, a sheet of the baser metal; Fig. 3, one of anumber of disks or blanks cut from the precious metal; Fig.

- 4, one of a number of disks or blanks out from the baser metal; Fig, 5, a plan showing the appearance of I the more precious sheet after all the blanks or disks have been cut out from it; Fig. 6, a plan of the baser sheet after all the blanks or disks have been cut from it;

Fig. 7, an edge view of the disks shown in Figs. 3 and 4 soldered together, the gold disk being the larger; Fig. 8, an edge view of two disks sweated together, the baser disk being the larger; and Fig. 9 shows a shell or thimble drawn from one of my plated disks. I

I take a sheet, a, of the precious metal, of any suitable size and thickness, and cut from it, by dies or otherwise, circular or nearly circular pieces I), or which, for convenience, I style disks, of the desired circumference. I also take a separate sheet, a, of the baser metal of suitable size (but which ordinarily will be materially thicker than the first-named sheet) and cut from it also circular or nearly circular pieces or disks (1, of very nearly the same size as those out from the sheet of precious metal. This leaves the remaining part c of each sheet homogeneous and not in any wise connected or soldered to or in any manner encumbered with any of the metal of the other sheet, and consequently it is all ready to be melted up without loss and formed to any desired shape, and not requiring any chemical, scientific, or other process, or any expense whatever, such as are due to the separation of united or combined metals. I then, and not until then, unite these-metal disks by soldering or by sweating each of the disks of the more precious metal to one of the disks of the baser metal,and such disks thus converted into plated disks are now ready to be converted into shelves or thimbles, and then drawn down by any known means to the required elongated state or shape or to a plated wire of the required size. It will now be evident that the articles of jewelry made from disks manufactured by my improved process may be produced more economically than heretofore, because of the above-described savin gin ti me and labor and of the prevention of waste of precious metal hitherto unavoidable.

My improved process, as above described, contemplates much larger disks than are shown in the drawings and larger than those generally used in the art of making jewelry, as it will readily be seen that the economy of this process increases with the size of the disks, and the limitations are only to be determined by the magnitude and power of machinery for preparing and reducing the same and securing closer continuous contact and permanent adhesion of the entire small surfaces in soldering together disks than in soldering together large sheets, and the shells, rods, or wires drawn from disks first out and then closely soldered together are therefore liable to be more perfect and evenly drawn throughout their whole lengths.

If in some cases it should be necessary to plate a second time in order to make very light plate, the saving would still be very great, since the first plated stock before being cut into disks may be rolled thin enough to cover several times its weight of base metal, to which such disks are to be united.

I claim The described improvement in the art of making plated metal shells or thimbles for use in the manufacture of jewelry, consisting in forming suitable-sized disks of the precious metal, in forming separate disks of nearly 40 the same size of a baser metal, then soldering each of such precious disks to one of the baser ones, and then converting such plated disks into shells, all substantially as set forth.

JOHN S. PALMER. Witnesses:

PERCY WILLCOX, GILMAN E. J OPP. 

